Harold & Kumar Interview

Meet The Funniest Duo In Film

Quick Bio

Who would have thought a low-budget comedy starring a couple of unknown actors as potheads going out for a hamburger would be the start of a franchise? It happened.

Harold and Kumar, played by John Cho and Kal Penn, went to White Castle, escaped from Guantanamo Bay, headed off to Amsterdam, and found their sweet spot. Loved by college kids everywhere for its balls-out stoner humor, the films and the absurdity of the situations in them became part of the pop landscape.

Separately, Penn and Cho have created solid film and TV careers, and Penn -- well, Penn landed at the White House. He is about to return to his post as associate director for the office of public liaison after taking a filmmaking hiatus. But Cho and Penn are together again on-screen just in time for the holidays. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas finds them estranged but brought together for one weird and wild Christmas Eve.

We spoke with Penn and Cho in Toronto.

How do you think you would have fared if you'd switched roles?

Answer: Kal Penn (KP): I would have been bored because in real life I’m much more of a Harold, so I love playing Kumar because he’s so different from me.

John Cho (JC): I thought I had played a more Kumar-like character and would have been more comfortable, but I don’t think I would have fared well. It was a challenge to play the straight man, and I’m grateful it worked out that way. It was a challenge trying to figure that out. Clearly, Kal was born to play the role. Specifically. Bred.

KP: I feel that my mom would strongly disagree!

JC: Your mother can think what she wishes! I will allow that.

How much was improv?

A: KP: Mostly not. The guys who wrote all three films are amazing writers and vivid in grounding all their characters. We have ad-libbed a little here and there, but it’s not like the big-budget movies where they can do take after take. It’s not like that.

JC: You pitch something. and it’s a thumbs up, and you read the script. Most of our discussions are before we start shooting. It’s a low-budget movie compared to most comedies, so we don’t have time to improv. We have to get in there and get going.

John, while watching your private parts frozen to the pole it occurred to me that comedy has gone everywhere. Every film has yet another bodily function occur. What's the next frontier?

A: JC: An Amish comedy?

KP: I think they’re just going to start showing organs. First you show an arm or a leg back in the day, and it was scandalous. And now the genital thing -- you have to just go inside.

JC: I don’t know what the next frontier is, but good comedy should put its toes in taboo waters, and you have to transgress a little bit, and that area shifts with culture and the year. There is so much full-frontal male nudity now. It’s going to be de rigueur soon.

KP: I think if we did a rated G-rated movie...

JC: You didn’t even make fun of me for using a French phrase.

KP: I will later. It would be distorted in some way now.

JC: He always makes fun of me.

KP: I do.

You've had enough career success that you don't have to come back to the series. Why do you come back?

A: KP: We have contracts.

JC: It’s the law.

KP: We like the characters. I have such a great time playing Kumar because he’s so different from me. It’s a treat.

JC: I like to come back. It’s a relief to come back to comedy. I like to flip flop. Making it your day’s work to find a laugh is a good way to spend a day, and I appreciate it more going away and then coming back. It’s like a class reunion. You’re with your friends again. It’s like going away to summer camp. It’s not real summer camp. It’s a metaphor.

The guys are maturing as time goes by. What's that like?

A: KP: The first two films took place within a minute of each other, and this one is six years later. All of us have done different things.

JC: I was in the White House!

KP: I did Star Trek! We did quite a bit. I love that the audience has aged with the characters, the ones who enjoyed it before, so hopefully there is something in it for them. It had been a while, and I don’t think I’d want to do a film set a minute after the second one. We’d aged and he looks decrepit.

KP: He’s still beautiful after all these years.

JC: I didn’t think that was feasible. We had to age them, I felt. Also things that happened publicly. Neil came out of the closet and Kal went to the White House. We felt we couldn’t do that age anymore. Our hand was forced a bit by real life, and I’m glad of it. It’s more interesting. The stakes are higher, the circumstances are different, and I think it’s a unique take to start a Harold & Kumar off with them being estranged from one another.